oc, kwG-f  f7,  vTi  — * 


C>  ^ ^ 


THE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


THE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


Jit  Jpfortss 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  SYNOD  OF  NEW  YORK, 

BY  ITS  APPOINTMENT, 


IN  THE  SCOTCH  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK,  OCTOBER  23d,  1862, 


BY  THE 

REV.  J.  EDSON  ROCKWELL,  D.D., 

MINISTER  OF  THE  CENTRAL  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  BROOKLYN,  N Y. 


yubUsfctS  bj  Btqutsi 


NEW  YORK: 

MISSION  HOUSE,  28  CENTRE  STREET. 
1862. 


^Printer  anS  iitmotapjr, 


A I)  D R ESS. 


Fathers  and  Brethren: 

Standing  as  we  do  in  the  midst  of  commotions  and  agitations 
that  are  stirring  our  souls  to  the  very  depths,  and  surrounded 
as  we  are  by  the  great  sea  of  public  and  political  strife  whose 
angry  surges  follow  us  even  to  the  closet  and  the  sanctuary,  it 
is  a grateful  work  to  turn  our  hearts  and  thoughts  away  from 
the  dreadful  picture  of  carnage  and  strife  to  those  holier  scenes 
of  joy  that  await  the  Church  of  God,  and  to  those  wondrous 
promises,  hastening  to  their  fulfilment,  which  assure  us  that 
all  these  vast  up-heavings  are  but  the  necessary  preliminaries 
to  the  coming  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  will  eventuate  in 
the  enlargement  and  stability  and  glory  of  the  Church. 

The  promises  of  God  to  his  people  are  designed  for  them 
not  alone  when  all  is  calm  and  peaceful,  when  the  sea  is  smooth 
and  the  winds  are  hushed ; but  they  meet  them  when  the  tem- 
pest rages,  when  the  ocean  is  convulsed,  and  the  mountains 
shake  with  the  swelling  thereof.  They  assure  us  that  Christ 
our  King  is  walking  upon  the  waters,  that  he  rides  upon  the 
whirlwind,  and  that  his  voice  even  the  winds  and  the  sea  obey. 
And  they  point  us  forward  to  the  ultimate  triumphs  of  his 
Church,  against  which,  no  weapon  shall  prosper,  nor  even  the 
gates  of  hell  prevail.  "While  then,  as  watchmen  upon  the 
walls,  we  look  out  upon  a dark  night,  and  through  thick  mists, 
and  see  the  play  of  the  lightnings,  and  hear  the  mutterings  of 
the  tempest  and  the  crash  of  the  thunder,  we  may  here  and 


4 


THE  DAY  AT  HAXD. 


there  through  the  rifting  clouds  see  the  precursors  of  coming 
day,  and  rejoice  to  know  that  its  dawning  is  at  hand.  Hitherto, 
for  wise  reasons,  God  has  permitted  sin  to  enter  into  the  grand 
experiment  which  has  been  going  on  in  the  great  laboratory  of 
the  moral  world,  that  its  influence  and  power  may  be  fully 
tested.  But  we  have  the  assurance  that  eventually  he  will 
change  the  ingredients,  and  show  to  the  universe  what  Holiness 
can  do,  when  by  his  Grace,  all  shall  know  the  Lord,  and  his 
Church  shall  everywhere  triumph,  and  infidelity,  and  super- 
stition, and  error,  and  oppression,  and  darkuess  shall  have  fled 
away  before  his  coming,  whose  light  is  the  gloiy  of  the  upper 
temple,  and  whose  Kingdom  shall  stretch  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  river  to  the  end  of  the  earth.  To  this  great  event  the 
eyes  of  God’s  people  have  been  turned  in  every  age.  They  have 
been  taught  to  pray  “Thy  Kingdom  come,”  and  the  wondrous 
prophecies  becoming  more  and  more  luminous  in  the  lapse  of 
ages,  and  the  developments  of  Divine  Providence  have  encou- 
raged them  to  hope  for  the  dawnings  of  a day  of  glory  upon 
this  long  night  of  sin,  when  Christ  shall  reign  over  all  the 
earth,  and  this  world,  long  groaning  beneath  its  load  of  sin 
and  sorrow,  shall  rejoice  in  his  supremacy.  Daniel  in  his 
glorious  visions  beheld  that  day,  and  heard  the  promise  that 
“the  kingdom  and  dominion  and  greatness  of  the  kingdom 
under  the  whole  Heaven  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom  is  an  everlasting 
kingdom,  and  all  dominions  shall  serve  and  obey  him.”  And 
when  our  faith  languishes  and  grows  dim  as  it  looks  forth  upon 
the  elements  of  evil  and  anarchy  everywhere  prevalent,  and 
beholds  the  nations’  still  hostile  to  God,  and  sees  the  evil  appa- 
rently triumphing  over  the  good,  it  is  re-assured  by  God’s 
own  promise,  “ I will  overturn,  overturn;  overturn  it,  until  he 
shall  come  whose  right  it  is.”  Here,  on  these  promises,  we 
may  confidently  rest  and  know  that  the  Church  is  safe,  that 
God  is  on  the  throne,  and  that  Christ  in  all  his  divine  power 
and  is  King  as  well  as  Prophet  and  Priest,  and  that 

vL, 


TIIK  DAY  AT  HAND. 


5 


lie  is  Head  over  all  tilings  to  his  Clmrcli  which  he  has  pur- 
chased with  his  ldood. 

Nor  are  we  left  to  walk  alone  by  faith,  but  here  and  there 
the  glimmerings  of  a blessed  light  appear  like  the  precursors 
of  the  dawn  of  day,  and  wondrous  changes  seem  to  re-echo  the 
words  of  the  Apostle,  “ the  night  is  far  spent,  and  the  day  is  at 
hand.” 

Amid  much  that  is  dark,  and  surrounded  by  scenes  of  peril 
and  trial,  we  may  yet  look  out  upon  the  great  field  of  Christian 
labour,  and  feel  that  the  signs  of  the  times  are  giving  promise 
of  good.  In  all  the  history  of  the  past,  the  Church  has  never 
had  so  much  to  encourage  her.  God’s  people  have  never  seen 
so  much  to  strengthen  their  faith,  and  to  call  forth  their  full 
and  united  efforts  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 
The  Bible  is  now  translated  into  every  tongue,  and  is  waiting 
to  be  sent  to  every  creature  with  all  its  precious  messages  of 
mercy.  More  than  forty-eight  millions  of  copies  of  the  holy 
Scriptures  have  been  published  during  the  present  century, 
which  are  being  circulated,  not  alone  by  all  the  varied  agencies 
iu  Christian  lands,  but  by  more  than  sixteen  hundred  mission- 
aries, and  more  than  sixteen  thousand  native  preachers  and 
teachers,  who  have  been  converted  to  God  and  educated  for 
his  service  from  the  midst  of  heathen  degradation.  Divine 
Providence  has  in  the  most  wonderful,  and  often  in  the  most 
unlooked-for  manner,  removed  out  of  the  way  obstacles  which 
seemed  to  be  insurmountable  in  the  progress  of  Christian 
missions,  so  that  there  is  now  free  access  to  every  part  of  the 
heathen  world.  The  silence  of  the  remotest  sea  is  now  broken 
by  the  plash  of  the  steamer,  the  herald  of  civilization,  and  the 
agent  of  Christian  nations  in  bearing  their  influence  to  every 
land  and  nation.  Commerce  and  the  intrepid  zeal  of  science 
have  broken  in  upon  African  wilds  and  Asiatic  solitudes,  and 
opened  to  the  world  vast  regions,  peopled  with  teeming  mil- 
lions which  have  been  hitherto  unvisited  and  unknown.  The 
walls  of  China  are  broken  down,  Japan  is  opening  to  the 

t£ 


6 


THE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


Gospel,  Africa  is  already  feeling  the  influence  of  commerce 
in  elevating  her  people,  and  is  opening  vast  mines  of  wealth 
hitherto  unknown,  which  will  attract  to  her  shores  not  the 
ships  of  the  slave-trader,  but  merchant  fleets,  engaged  in  honor- 
able and  civilizing  traffic,  under  whose  influence  that  mighty 
continent  may  regain  her  ancient  prestige,  when  Carthage  was 
the  empire  of  commerce,  and  Egypt  the  mother  of  science. 
Mahomedan  prejudices  against  Christian  nations  are  fast  giving 
way  before  the  influence  of  national  intercommunion  and  the 
fierce  fanaticism  with  which  the  Turkish,  and  Persian,  and 
Moorish  nations  have  met  the  advances  of  Christian  kindness 
and  courtesy,  is  yielding  before  the  advance  of  light  and  truth, 
while  amid  the  millions  of  the  Papal  world  there  is  going  on 
a wondrous  change  which  is  rapidly  opening  their  minds  to 
the  blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

And  when  we  turn  from  these  evident  indications  for  good, 
as  found  in  the  wonderful  openings  which  God’s  providence  is 
making  for  the  advance  of  Christian  missions,  we  find  that 
while  the  Church  by  no  means  comes  up  to  the  full  measure 
of  its  strength  and  duty,  yet  the  last  fifty  years  have  witnessed 
a most  wonderful  and  gratifying  progress  in  this  direction. 

Much  as  men  who  are  disposed  to  look  at  the  dark  side  may 
declare  that  the  world  is  only  growing  worse — who  would  be 
willing  to  blot  out  what  has  been  done,  and  return  to  the 
position  which  the  Church  was  in  at  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century  ? Who  can  trace  the  progress  of  modern  mis- 
sions from  the  hour  when  the  little  band  of  youths  at  Williams’ 
College  began  to  pray  for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  and 
consecrated  themselves  to  the  work  of  preaching  the  Gospel 
to  the  Heathen  until  the  present  hour,  and  not  feel  that  the 
Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  his  Church  ? Long  before 
that  time,  indeed,  had  the  seeds  been  planted,  and  were  already 
germinating  and  shooting  upward  and  giving  signs  of  a coining 
harvest. 

We  may  trace  the  great  work  back  to  the  glorious  revivals 


TIIE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


i 


which  crowned  the  last  century,  and  which  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  present.  From  that  time  it  was  evident  that  the. spirit 
of  missions  was  awakening1  throughout  the  Church.  Early  in 
the  history  of  our  own  beloved  Zion  we  find  the  principle 
taking  deep  hold  of  the  minds  of  her  ministers,  that  the  work 
of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Heathen  was  the  work  of  the 
Church,  and  although  in  those  days  of  small  things  it  was 
evident  for  a time  that  there  must  be  a union  of  all  evangelical 
Christians  for  the  furtherance  of  the  cause — yet  that  great 
principle  was  never  lost  sight  of,  and  is  now  manifest,  as  we  see 
every  great  division  of  the  Church  assuming  this  work  for 
itself  and  identifying  it  with  its  most  cherished  movements 
and  operations.  And  as  we  go  back  to  the  early  history  of  the 
missionary  work,  and  follow  down  these  few  and  feeble  streams 
as  they  enlarge  and  multiply,  and  widen  and  deepen,  until  they 
havt*  become  a mighty  flood,  bearing  on  its  bosom  the  blessings 
of  the  Gospel  to  almost  every  land,  who  shall  either  despise 
the  day  of  small  things,  or  doubt  that  the  Church  has  made 
encouraging  progress  since  it  first  entered  in  earnest  upon  the 
fulfilment  of  Christ’s  command,  “Go  preach  my  Gospel  to 
every  creature !” 

It  is  not  alone  upon  the  arrangements  which  are  made  to 
send  out  Christian  ministers  and  teachers  to  the  heathen  that 
we  are  to  look,  when  we  would  make  an  estimate  of  what  is 
now  doing  for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  This  is  but  apart 
of  the  vast  system  of  agencies  which  God  is  using  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  his  purposes  and  the  fulfilment  of  his  gracious 
promises. 

His  armory  is  full  of  weapons  for  the  destruction  of  his 
enemies.  His  providence  has  most  ample  resources  for  the 
enlargement  and  upbuilding  of  his  kingdom.  We  are  not  to 
expect  that  the  institutions  of  religion  will  be  planted  in  any 
nation  simply  by  a few  isolated  missionaries.  God  did  not  so 
build  up  his  Church  in  Canaan,  but  sent  there  a whole  colony 
that  had  been  fitted  for  their  work  amid  the  discipline  of 


8 


THE  DAY  AT  IIAKD. 


Egypt  aud  tlie  wilderness.  He  did  not  so  plant  liis  Church  here, 
but  brought  hither  his  people  from  the  shores  of  the  old  world 
where  he  had  prepared  them  for  their  work  by  trials  and  perse- 
cutions. And  do  we  not  see  this  same  process  going  on,  by 
which  our  Pacific  coast  has  been  filled  with  churches  and 
Christian  institutions,  and  Australia  is  becoming  the  home  of 
a vast  Christian  population,  and  parts  of  Africa  are  already 
rising  to  the  dignity  of  a free  and  enlightened  country  with 
all  the  institutions  of  our  holy  religion  diffusing  their  influence 
far  and  wide.  And  it  may  be  that  the  multitudes  which  God 
has  been  bringing  to  our  own  shores  are,  in  his  time,  to  be  sent 
forth  with  all  the  institutions  of  the  Gospel  that  they  may 
make  some  other  lands,  now  sitting  in  darkness,  the  home  of 
the  Church  and  the  dwelling  place  of  the  Most  High. 

And  then  again,  God  is  evidently  intending  to  make  the 
great  machinery  of  commercial  enterprise  tributary  to  the*up- 
building  of  his  kingdom.  It  cannot  have  escaped  the  student 
of  prophecy  how,  that  many  of  the  exceeding  great  and  pre- 
cious promises  which  refer  to  the  latter  day  glory,  connect 
with  it  the  sea  and  its  inhabitants.  As  the  Church  is  pointed 
to  her  future  greatness  and  glory,  she  sees  the  wealth  of  the 
nations  poured  at  her  feet,  and  lending  her  their  aid. 

Put  with  the  multitude  of  the  camels  of  Midian  and  Epluih, 
she  beholds  the  abundance  of  the  sea  converted  unto  God, 
while  the  ships  of  Tarshish  come  first  to  bring  her  sons  from 
far,  her  silver  and  her  gold  witli  them.  And  as  the  provi- 
dences of  God  are  unrolling  his  plans,  it  is  evident  that  he  in- 
tends to  use  the  sailor  as  one  of  the  foremost  agencies  in 
extending  his  kingdom.  More  than  three  millions  of  men, 
chiefly  the  representatives  of  Christian  nations,  are  doing  busi- 
ness upon  the  great  waters.  With  an  increasing  interest  and 
zeal  the  Church  has  been  turning  her  attention  to  this  once 
neglected  class  of  men,  and  the  results  of  her  labour  are  already 
manifest.  The  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  now  ascends  from 
many  a ship  that  spreads  her  sails  to  the  ocean  breeze,  and 


THE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


9 


thousands  of  men  are  going  forth  to  distant  lands  upon  the 
peaceful  errands  of  commerce,  who  are  carrying  with  them  all 
the  warm  and  generous  impulses  of  the  sailor,  and  the  manly 
and  unselfish  devotion  of  those  whose  hearts  have  felt  the  love 
of  Christ,  and  the  power  of  his  Spirit ; and  their  influence  is 
felt  for  good  wherever  they  go.  Some  of  the  most  encourag- 
ing and  hopeful  aspects  of  the  missionary  work  abroad,  are 
connected  with  the  fact  that  so  many  pious  sailors  are  now 
representing  Christian  nations  upon  heathen  shores.  Those  who 
have  studied  most  the  indications  of  Providence,  and  who  have 
most  thoroughly  understood  the  character  of  the  Christian 
sailor,  have  most  wondered  that  the  Church  lias  been  so  slow 
to  enter  upon  the  work  of  caring  for  those  who  go  down  to 
the  sea  in  ships ; and  of  using  with  them  the  means  that  under 
God  may  be  blessed  to  their  conversion  to  Christ,  The 
amount  of  good  already  accomplished  by  the  scattering  of 
Bibles  and  tracts  among  catholic  and  pagan  nations  through 
the  means  of  seafaring  men,  whose  hearts  are  full  of  love  to 
Christ,  can  never  be  estimated  until  the  records  of  time  are 
reviewed  in  the  light  of  eternity. 

And  when  looking  over  all  the  appliances  which  the  Church 
possesses  for  preaching  the  Gospel,  we  ask.  What  are  the  results 
already  accomplished  \ We  have  no  reason  to  faint  or  be  dis- 
couraged, or  to  doubt  whether  God  intends  to  use  his  Church 
as  his  agent  for  spreading  over  the  earth  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

The  representatives  of  the.  Church,  and  even  of  the  Amer- 
ican church  alone,  are  found  in  almost  every  heathen  nation, — 
amid  the  coral  islands  of  the  Pacific— upon  the  shores  of 
Africa — on  the  mountains  and  plains  of  Asia,  and  the  hills  and 
valleys  of  Palestine  where  prophets  and  apostles  lived  and 
preached.  In  India  and  China  and  Turkey  and  the  Isles  of 
Greece,  the  American  missionary  stands  as  the  herald  of  salva- 
tion,— preaching  by  the  press  or  in  the  school,  or  by  the  way- 
side,  or  in  the  chapel,  or  from  house  to  house — the  news  of 


10 


THE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


pardon  by  tbe  Redeemer’s  blood.  Churches  have  been  gath- 
ered amid  lands  long  shrouded  in  heathen  darkness,  and  many 
precious  souls  have  been  converted  and  saved  by  means  of 
those  whom  we  have  sent  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Even 
the  catholic  world  is  fast  opening  to  the  truth  and  the  light. 
A wonderful  change  is  evidently  going  on  in  Italy.  From  their 
mountain  fastnesses  where  they  have  long  hid  themselves,  the 
Waldenses,  (these  ancient  witnesses  for  the  truth,)  are  coming 
forth  and  planting  their  churches  and  their  school  of  the  pro- 
phets almost  under  the  shadow  of  Rome, — while  in  France  the 
truth  is  gaining  ground,  and  the  precious  doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
are  opening  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  even  of  men  who  have 
ministered  at  the  altars  of  the  Papal  Church.  And  with  these 
considerations,  may  we  not  look  forth  hopefully,  and  witli  a 
strengthening  faith  upon  the  great  field  in  which  we  are  called 
to  labour  ? Surely  never  were  the  appliances  for  work  so  great, 
never  had  the  Church  more  encouragement  to  go  forth  and 
thrust  in  the  sickle  and  reap.  Let  us  then  seek  to  awaken  our 
hearts  to  the  duty  of  a full  consecration  to  the  work  of  mis- 
sions in  all  its  varied  departments,  at  home  and  abroad — in 
the  raising  up  and  education  of  labourers  and  in  sending  them 
forth  to  the  field.  Let  us  stand  by  the  seashore  and  give  the 
sailor  as  he  leaves  his  home  some  token  of  Christian  love  and 
care.  Let  us  meet  the  mighty  tide  of  population  that  is  pour- 
ing in  upon  us  from  the  old  world,  and  supply  the  emigrant 
with  the  means  of  religious  instruction  and  education.  Let  us 
send  forth  the  colporteur  with  his  messages  of  love,  to  visit 
every  neglected  hamlet  and  desolate  home,  and  leave  them 
some  leaf  from  the  tree  of  life.  Let  us  send  forth  the  embas- 
sador for  Christ  to  obey  the  last  command  of  the  Master,  “go 
preach  my  Gospel  to  every  creature.”  We  cannot  doubt  the 
result.  The  enemies  of  God  may  make  war  upon  the  lamb, 
but  the  lamb  shall  overcome  them.  The  Church  will  triumph. 
The  ark  is  safe.  The  final  victory  may  even  now  be  near  at  hand. 

Everywhere  we  look  we  find  the  precursors  of  the  day, 


TIIE  DAY  AT  HAND. 


11 


and  seem  to  hear  the  echo  of  God’s  word,  “The  night  is 
far  spent.”  Let  us  then  take  courage  even  while  surrounded 
by  trials.  We  are  engaged  in  a work,  the  success  of  which 
there  is  no  possible  doubt.  We  are  labouring  for  a cause  dear 
to  the  heart  of  God  himself — for  the  extension  of  the  Church 
to  which  he  has  said  “ Thy  walls  are  ever  before  me.  I have 
graven  thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands.  lie  that  toucheth  you 
toucheth  the  apple  of  mine  eye.”  Times  of  trial  and  darkness 
have  and  may  come,  but  they  shall  only  serve  in  the  end,  to 
manifest  more  fully  the  great  love  wherewith  Christ  has  loved 
his  Church.  The  promises  of  God  cannot  fail,  and  they  all  point 
us  forward  to  the  year  of  jubilee,  and  bid  us  labour  and  pray 
for  its  coming.  It  will  surely  come.  The  hour  is  approaching 
when  there  shall  be  heard  the  shout  of  the  hosts  of  God’s 
elect  rising  from  the  valleys, — ascending  the  hills — rolling  on 
in  streams  ever  deepening,  over  mountains  and  plains,  and 
seas,  sweeping  round  the  world  in  one  mighty  and  majestic 
anthem,  whose  echoes  shall  be  caught  by  angels  and  borne 
heavenward, — “ We  give  thee  thanks,  O Lord  God  Almighty, 
who  art,  and  wast,  and  art  to  come,  because  thou  hast  taken 
to  thee  thy  great  power  and  hast  reigned.” 


: flit « 


t 


